Crosby scores 400th NHL goal for Penguins

Sidney Crosby scored his 400th NHL goal for the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday.
The center scored 3:31 into the second period against the St. Louis Blues to become the 95th player in NHL history and the seventh active player to score 400. He scored an empty-net goal for No. 401 at 17:12 of the third period in the 4-1 win.

"I don't think you really think of it that way, but it's a nice number and you're happy when you get it," Crosby said. "You want to get more and continue to go, but certainly it's not something you try to think about. When it takes that long, it kind of builds up that way."

Crosby had not scored in 10 games and had three goals in his prior 22.
"I still don't know how it trickled in, it seemed like it took forever, but it's been a long 10 games too," he said. "It's nice to see one go in. You're trying to put it in, in that area short side. Sometimes there's a little bit of room on the post there, sometimes there's not. Somehow it kind of found its way in."
It was the 18th goal of the season for Crosby, who scored at least 20 goals 10 times in his first 12 seasons, including an NHL career-high 51 in 2009-10 and 44 last season, which led the League.
"It's a typical Crosby goal," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "He's so good, he scores more goals from below the goal line than anybody I've seen and he's one of the few guys that thinks the game at such a high level."

Alex Ovechkin of the Capitals (590), Patrick Marleau of the Toronto Maple Leafs (526), Marian Hossa of the Chicago Blackhawks (525), Rick Nash of the New York Rangers (433) and Marian Gaborik of the Los Angeles Kings (403) are the other active players with 400 NHL goals. Jaromir Jagr, assigned by the Calgary Flames to HC Kladno of the Czech 1 Liga, has 766.
Crosby, the No. 1 pick by Pittsburgh in the 2005 NHL Draft, has 1,089 points (401 goals, 688 assists) in 839 games. He is second in Penguins history behind Mario Lemieux (1,723).
"It's tough waiting that long to score No. 400
presented by Molson Canadian in 2017.

NHL correspondent Louie Korac contributed to this report